Meet Bookfest's 2022 Presenters!
We are so excited to share our incredible lineup of presenters this year. Our selection committee has worked hard to bring you a diverse group of authors and illustrators from across Canada.
Akulukjuk
Roselynn
Roselynn's Presentation:
Reading of Little Moar and the Moon followed by a Q&A
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Roselynn was raised in Pangnirtung, Nunavut. In 2012 Roselynn moved to Toronto to pursue a career in film and attended the Toronto Film School, where she fell in love with being behind the camera. After her studies, Roselynn returned home to Nunavut, where she began working with Taqqut Productions, an Inuit-owned production company located in the capital of Nunavut, Iqaluit. Part of Roselynn’s love of filmmaking is the ability to interview elders, listen to their traditional stories and share them with the world. Roselynn has garnered international success with her short puppet film, The Owl and the Lemming (2016), a retelling of a traditional Inuit story.
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Kim
Soyeon
Soyeon's Presentation:
Diorama Workshop
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This workshop will focus on creating dioramas with materials that can be found at home or outside in nature. Starting with the introduction to diorama art, we will learn what a diorama is and how it’s made. As we explore a different habitat (e.g. aquatic, desert, forest, grassland, tundra), participants will be asked to create nature elements for background, middleground and foreground (e.g. water, planes) with a minimum of three living creatures (e.g. animals, insects, plants). We will explore the elements and principles of art as we draw, colour and cut. Learn how to assemble the pieces with tips and tricks on how we can place them in or outside dioramas.
Soyeon Kim is a Korean-born artist and educator currently living in Ontario. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts and Bachelor of Education from York University. She has participated in artist residencies at The Hermitage (St. Petersburg, Russia), Spark Box Studios (Picton, Ontario) and The Toronto Public Library for the Joanne Fitzgerald Illustrator in Residence (Toronto, Ontario).
As a children’s picture book illustrator, she has published: You Are Stardust, Wild Ideas, Is This Panama? Sukaq and the Raven, You Are Never Alone, A Last Goodbye, and Once Upon an Hour. She has participated in TD Book Week 2018, visiting schools and libraries in Northern British Columbia. In 2017, she was invited to the Adelaide Writers’ Week (Australia) for the Kids’ Weekend, where she collaborated with kids and families to create a collaborative mural based on You Are Stardust. She is also a recipient of Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award.
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Si
Zoe
Zoe's Presentation:
Drawing Funny! with Cartoonist & Illustrator Zoe Si
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Zoe will share how a lifetime of drawing funny cartoons has shaped how she tells and illustrates stories, using examples from her books "The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe" and "Teeny Houdini". Students will take part in a guided drawing activity where they will get to create cartoon characters with their own funny stories.
Zoe Si is a cartoonist and illustrator with a lifelong passion for laughing at her own jokes. She believes in the power of words, but also that wherever words fail, a cartoon can usually succeed. Zoe holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of British Columbia and practiced law for a number of years. She now spends her days making children’s books, cartooning and writing funny articles for The New Yorker, and drawing comics of everything in sight. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and a fluffy dog. In her spare time, she enjoys climbing mountains and petting other people’s dogs.
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Hermione
Tankard
Hermione's Presentation:
Not everyone likes Shakespeare, but many people like plays, poems, and stories. My presentation is about how I discovered Shakespeare when I was 9 and how this lead to me becoming a teenage author, and how Shakespeare’s writing style can be used creatively by kids today!
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Hermione Tankard is a young author, singer, and actor. As a teenager, she co-authored the book Yorick and Bones: The lost graphic novel by William Shakespeare with her dad, Jeremy Tankard. She is passionate about books, music, and telling stories!
Nicole
Testa
Nicole's Presentation - In French ONLY
Comme Lili Macaroni
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Nicole Testa présente Lili Macaroni, je suis comme je suis. Une histoire pour parler d’acceptation de soi et de peine. Lili Macaroni entre à l’école et apprend que ses cheveux, son nom, ses yeux, font rire ses amis. Elle comprend que ce n’est pas bien d’être comme elle est et décide d’inventer une nouvelle Lili. Mais elle se rend vite compte qu’elle préfère la vraie Lili. À l’aide de son précieux papillon à pois, elle apprend comment prendre soin de sa peine. Nicole partage comment est née l’idée de cette histoire et comment les mots sont magiques pour inventer des histoires. Elle dévoile un secret de l’illustratrice Annie Boulanger puis elle raconte l’histoire. À la fin de la rencontre elle invite les enfants à créer un papillon porte-joie.
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Auteure jeunesse et donneuse de goût de lire, je trouve dans la littérature jeunesse de quoi combler mon appétit monstre pour le merveilleux. Depuis près de 30 ans, je partage le plaisir d’écrire avec les enfants, ma principale source d’inspiration. Grâce aux programmes de formation et de mentorat du Camp littéraire Félix, j’ai pu explorer et perfectionner mon processus d’écriture et mon style en compagnie des auteurs Dominique Demers, Raymond Plante et Christiane Duchesne. Depuis la sortie des livres Alice feu d’artifice et Téo Incognito dans la toute nouvelle collection : À voix haute chez Dominique et compagnie, je suis comblée en réunissant deux de mes passions : celle d’écrire et celle de promouvoir la lecture à haute voix.